ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270035
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
For the first time, some Gulf War veterans have a government study that backs up what they have said all along: They're sicker than people who served elsewhere that year.
What makes them sick is still a mystery.
Preliminary findings of a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Air Force veterans of the 1991 war are three times more likely to suffer memory loss, joint and muscle pain and other ills than people who served elsewhere during the same period.
``We have validated what these veterans have been saying for a long time, that there is an important chronic illness in veterans, and we are making strides to determine what it is,'' said Dr. William Reeves, the CDC's chief investigator of the syndrome.
After interviewing 4,000 Air Force veterans of the Gulf War, the researchers formulated a definition of Gulf War Syndrome that includes memory loss, fatigue, muscle pain and depression.
But the study, which began in 1994, does not offer any explanation for what's making the veterans sick.
``We have found no evidence that there was exposure to any infectious agents or toxin,'' Reeves said. ``We have found that there is nothing unique to the Persian Gulf, other than having gone there.''
When the study is published next year, it might link the health problems to chronic fatigue syndrome or battlefield stress, he said.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a disabling weariness whose symptoms include muscle and joint pain, swollen neck glands, headaches and memory loss. It is diagnosed by ruling out other conditions. Battlefield stress now is better known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Others have suggested that the ills reported by thousands of Gulf War veterans might be tied to a virus, to exposure to chemical warfare agents in an arsenal that was blown up by allied forces, or to some Iraqi biological weapon.
Veterans said the CDC study is the proof they needed.
``It's good if they can diagnose it as that because it labels it,'' said John Muckelbauer, a former Marine sergeant from New Market, Md. who served for six months in Kuwait. ``Right now, there's no official name and no official symptoms.''
The Defense Department has maintained it is unable to find any single cause to explain the illnesses, although it acknowledged that up to 15,000 people could have been exposed to chemical agents from the destroyed Iraqi arsenal.
For the CDC study, researchers interviewed about 4,000 Air Force personnel from four military bases in Pennsylvania and Florida after a Lebanon, Pa., doctor noticed a similarity of symptoms among Air National Guard officers in south-central Pennsylvania.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB